Chapter One:

I stood silently crying in front of the single stall restroom, the door was locked and there were no windows. For the past hour I had been trying to convince myself that Adam really didn’t mean what he’d said in a bad way, I mean maybe I was being too loud and obnoxious. He most likely meant to save me from further humiliation on my birthday. With a sad smile I gazed on at my hunched over reflection, my teary eyes barely able to make out the black streaks running down my face but not blurry enough to cover up how red my cheeks were. 

"Babe, don’t be so sensitive. It’s not like I hit you or anything, I just told you the truth and if that’s enough to upset you then you’re a fucking snowflake. Come out,” hesitant he muttered out a soft and somewhat hushed, “Please?" Almost like he was questioning the word rather than asking me. 

He had been waiting at the door after I had been in here for ten minutes. I probably shouldn't have reacted like that though, I mean the tears and the storming away and locking him out were a little much. He was nice enough to wait for me, I just embarrassed him and he still waits for me no matter what. Even when I was a nobody on the street he still gave me a chance and waited till I was somebody. I don't know anyone else that would have done that. Although he isn’t my soulmate he is as close as I can get. I looked up once more at the mirror in front of me, just to see the hideous face that stared back. Slowly I turned on the facet and pooled the cold water into my hands and rubbed off the makeup that was now smeared across my face like I was a damned war hero. Reaching for a paper towel my hands became steady again as I brushed the rough paper over my face. Quickly I used my small mind to place some colored back into my face and to make myself appear more presentable. Tossing away the dirty paper towel I wrapped up my makeup and put away all of my brushes, eyeshadow, lip gloss, and concealer. After ten minutes I gathered myself and knocked on the locked bathroom door, crossing my fingers at my side hoping Adam was still waiting for me. 'Knock, knock'’ 

"Hey babe, are you still there?" I whispered through the crack in the door. After a moment of silence, I heard an almost silent 'Mhm' 

"Babe, I'm sorry for embarrassing you, will you forgive me?" I replied, 

"Of course, you know I always do." 

I could hear the smirk he was wearing through his husky voice, so with a smile on my face I opened the bathroom door and was met with an almost stone cold hug.

"You know I love you, babe, right?" I whispered into his chest. 

'Mhm,' he replied as I recuperated the hug. 

After a little while I wriggled out of the hug as he snatched my hand and put on a practiced smile, 

"Come on baby, let's go talk to your parents," He whispered as he gave my hand a gentle squeeze.

I nodded as we began to take slow, steady steps out towards our booth in the far corner of the restaurant, easily spotting my parents with their faces twisted in hatred, their anger almost radiating off of them. Adam, ignoring their eyes as they traced his figure, took the chair I had previously been sitting in by the sides and pulled it out as a silent demand for me to sit, and as I placed my body down onto the seat Adam pushed it back in, I could feel my parents eyes trace my general direction as they held the same anger that they always did when I had done something wrong. I know that I was embarrassing them, but their stare’s felt a little more aggressive than usual. 

“Mom Dad, I'm sorry for acting like a child on our night out. I know I should be more mature by now, I mean it's been years since I was a child" -with a nervous chuckle I rubbed the back of my head- "I really am sorry." 

My father's anger suddenly burst as he stood up and pushed the seat out from behind him. I doubt he could hold in how upset he was at me anymore. 

"He should be the one apologizing!" He screamed, causing a shockwave of emotions to envelope me, "He's the one that ruined our night out by upsetting MY child, he's the one that thought it would be a smart idea to make you believe that the screaming, and the fighting, and him hitting you was normal for TWO freaking years! Adrian! Don't be that person Doll face, just don't.

“You don’t need him, you never did and you never will. He isn’t even your soulmate, so why are you letting him off the hook, why are you letting him treat you like this? I can't stand by and watch him break you over and over and over again, you understand what I am saying, right?" 

Adam stood defiantly in front of the view I had of my father, looking me directly in the eyes, his voice lowered but still harsh, "Baby, don't let him manipulate you, I love you, you know I do. Our happiness is different from theirs, we don’t need to be soulmates to be happy with each other. Baby, you know that.” 

“We don’t even have soulmates, I mean if you even had a soulmate you would have found them by now, so let’s be real. You’re better off with me." 

I stared into the scared eyes of my boyfriend, a thousand thoughts racing through my mind, a multitude asking me if I’d be able to live without him, the others running through all of the bad and good memories we had shared over the years.

"How can it be so hard to find a stupid soul mate?" I muttered under my breath as tears ran from my glossy green eyes. 

I looked from MY Adam’s eyes to my dad's, "Too hard Papa, he's as close to a soul mate as I have, and as far as I’m concerned as close to one as I will ever get” -I took a shaky breath, my voice becoming raspy- “I don’t even know if I have a soul mate. I thought that if I could just find one person like me, I would be able to be happy. Papa, he makes me happy,” 

As far as I knew he was the only person I had ever dated that couldn't be with their soulmate and was perfectly fine with being with me instead, we are both a second option to the other and we have come to terms with that.

Tears began to stream from the corners of both my parents eyes as my mom answered, "But he doesn’t Adrian, the tears on your face say that loudly enough. Just come with us, okay?" 

She waited for me to answer as she held her arms open wide for me to come into her embrace. After a moment's hesitation I thought through the alternative and choked on the air I was breathing, nodding my head slowly I looked up at my boyfriend, ex-boyfriend's, face.

"I'm sorry," I croaked from beneath my pouting lips.

I attempted to scrub the tears off of my bright red cheeks. To no avail I hid my face in my mothers shoulder melting into her warm embrace, the total opposite of the ones I was used to receiving from Adam. All he did was stare back without a single trace of sadness, not even shock or anger, he was just like an endless void with no emotion. Where I once looked when I needed comfort, control, and someone who understood, was just a stoned over face as cold as his hugs. 

"You'll regret this, and then you'll come back to me Adrian. I promise you that," he said calmly as he turned away from me and left the restaurant.

My mother sat in the passenger seat beside my father who was driving their 2006 Pagani Zonda, as I sat in the drivers passenger seat softly crying behind my mother, the roof was already all of the way up keeping me well hidden from the public, as it always had. The memories I had shared with Adam ran through my head, one after the other as if they were a movie on display. I remember the picnics and road trips we would take, the concerts we would go to, and the games we would play on his PS4, but I also remember him constantly yelling, cold food on the table, the bruises that littered my face, dishes being thrown across the room, and the tears that I had shed. Would I ever really want to go back to him? I know that he was awful to me, but he hadn’t changed the slightest bit the last three times I had run back to him, so was there anything stopping me from going back to him once more? 

"Adrian? Are you awake? We're home," my father spoke softly from the front seat of the vehicle. 

"Okay, thank you Papa," I replied in my horse and rotting voice staring blankly out the car window, hands on my lap and tears running like a river down my warm, rosy cheeks, "I'll get out soon, go on ahead of me." 

My parents' faces looked full of both pain and sympathy, a look I hadn't received since I was merely a child on a bike. 

The only difference between then and now is that I'm not a child, I'm twenty years old, and it isn't because I fell off of my bike and scraped my knees bloody, it was because I had lost the closest thing that I would ever have to a soul mate and for once there was no turning back. I must really be cursed, I've traveled the world and have had over twenty-three partners, but not one of them has ever been THE ONE, I had thought that Adam could be an equivalent though. I guess I was wrong. I wiped my face clear of the tears they once cradled and gripped the door handle of the vehicle, pulled it down and pushed out, letting in the crisp night air that effortlessly blew my locks all over the place and stung my eyes in pure love. It seems they are alive after all, I hadn’t felt their presence for quite a while. The feelings of your soulmate leave a stain on the air in areas that the other person had been before, that's how soulmates find each other, through their feelings. Why can't I feel loved just like they do? Feeling so detached from them hurts like a shot to the gut, it’s not an unfamiliar feeling though, just one I wish I didn’t know. The heels of my shoes pressed against the soft green grass and sunk into the moist soil beneath it. I had finally gotten the nerve to meet my parents at the door, but this time it was with a comical smile plastered on my tanned face, one I had practiced over and over again. I may be upset and confused right now, but at least I can be happy about my soul mate’s happiness, or the fact that my mom and dad are on my side and are going to help me through this. At the sight of my smile my parents shoulders became less stiff and I could see that their smiles became lighter, less forced, and I could hear them both release an audible sigh. Unbeknownst to my parents, these weren't my feelings, let alone ones that I felt in this very moment. As I crossed through the entryway of my parents mansion I became blasted by the heating system and began to slowly let down my guard. I'm finally home, the Gods only know how much I wanted to be here again. I knew that with all of these feelings I would soon feel whole again. My love life might need a little break, but with everything going on it should be able to make me slightly less cold inside.

Another day, and my life has just begun to fall apart.